TRACK TALK: Rocco sparkles at Waterford

Friday

Apr 18, 2014 at 8:43 PMApr 18, 2014 at 8:46 PM

After a successful season opener at the Waterford Speedbowl last weekend, Keith Rocco earned a decisive win in the Valenti Modified Racing Series. Rocco had the field covered and is the driver to beat tonight at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H.

Lou ModestinoEnterprise Correspondent

After a successful season opener at the Waterford Speedbowl last weekend, Keith Rocco earned a decisive win in the Valenti Modified Racing Series. Rocco had the field covered and is the driver to beat tonight at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H.

Tonight’s VMRS 100 lap feature is also an opportunity for Chris Pasteryak, Todd Szgedy, Jeff Rocco and Max Zachem, who ended getting the leftovers at Waterford and finished behind Rocco. It’s also possible that Ted Christopher could be at the wheel of the Brady Bunch entry out of Stoughton. TC ended his day at Waterford with engine problems and finished way back.

Madog will also be an opportunity for Bellingham’s Steve Masse and Canton’s Richard Savary. Both didn’t enjoy a good season start. Also Easton’s Rob Richardi Jr. will be looking for redemption at Monadnock because he didn’t make the cut in qualifying at Waterford in his rookie season with the VMRS. Rob moved into the VMRS this year after a lot of success on the Pro 4 Modified Tour.

Wheels of Time: The Brockton-based Wheels of Time had a great turnout of classic cars at the Raynham-Taunton Park and will have an encore on Thursday at 6 p.m. The MA Cruisers will also go with a second cruise night on Thursday, May 1 at the Bass Pro Shop at Patriot Place in Foxboro. At the Bass Pro Shop the official start time is 5 p.m. Most of the old-timers start to arrive at 2 p.m. Also at that time the Corvette, Camaro, Firebird, Mustang and Mopar clubs start to stake out their turf. By 6 p.m., if the weather is good, the massive parking lot at Patriot Place has the capability of 2,500 vehicles, including restored cars, trucks, motorcycles and even small camping vehicles as well as some a few heavy duty trucks and buses. The Scituate-based Connecting Rods club is expected to open up their weekly Friday night cruise events on May 2 at Wal-Mart at Routes 106 and 18 in Halifax. That event can have as many as 700 vehicles.

Reunion time in Norwood: Bezema Motors on the Auto Mile Route 1 in Norwood will be hosting the 10th annual Norwood Arena/New England Dragway South Reunions on Sunday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Trophies for classic cars, oval race cars, drag racers and motorcycles will be awarded to the top three in each class. Expected for the event are lots of classics, hot rods and customs as well as restored oval race cars of the NEAR and STARS vintage racing car clubs and drag racing vehicles of all types. The New England Racing Hall of Fame truck will be on hand along with the webmaster for the Norwood Arena website. In addition, there will be vendors offering motorsports collectables and clothing such as T-shirts. Food and beverages will also be available. The show goes rain or shine.

Brendan King of Norwood recently restored a 60’s era Dodge Coronet sedan in the Norwood Arena pace car livery. We saw the vehicle at the recent Icebreaker at Thompson Speedway in Connecticut. Brendan came across a picture of that Dodge and created a facsimile. Also, King and his partner Jerry Kelliher, also of Norwood, have been working on a documentary about the Norwood Arena and how it was connected with the Daytona and Talladaga Speedways as Pete Hamilton of Dedham won NASCAR Grand National races at both of those super-speedways. Hamilton got his start in racing at the Norwood Arena which shut down in 1972. We’ve heard that a Norwood Arena documentary will be released sometime in September. There was a u-tube preview trailer recently that was interesting as it gathered 4,500 hits.

NASCAR announces schedule: NASCAR announced the broadcast schedule for the remainder of the 2014 NASCAR K&N Pro Series and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tours Championship events on FOX Sports 1. The schedule includes 28 events for NASCAR’s touring series including previously aired races from Bristol Motor Speedway, Greenville Pickens Speedway, and Irwindale Speedway.

The popular annual Whelen Modified/Southern Modified Tour date in August at Bristol Motor Speedway is on the slate. Additionally, both the July and September Whelen Modified Tour dates at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon are scheduled to air, as is an October trip to Thompson (Conn.) Speedway Motorsports Park for the tour’s final race of the season.